FOUR ZOAS VIIA / 85:26-90:7


The event of eating the
fruit of the Tree of Mys-
 tery transforms the
 meaning of perspective
 transformation itself.


breathese] forth" the spectres (90:40-41) rather than their being "drawn"
by the lovely "shadow." In this final account, the "spectrous dead" can
enter the narrative proper only on the condition that "forms sublime"
that function as counterparts or semblances be created for them, whereas
in the previous two accounts the spectres appear explicitly forlorn of
counterparts.
 These three sequential entrances of the dead into the narrative proper
cannot be reduced to an unambiguous causal sequence, for after the first
appearance of the dead, their emergence from a dormant state is not
mentioned again (is treated as if it had not yet occurred) until they reappear
in the context of Los and Enitharmon eating the fruit, after which they
again are repressed by the narrative until they emerge breathed forth by
Enitharmon. By keeping these discrepancies primarily subliminal, Blake
makes it possible for the reader to experience these successive emergences
of the dead as simply three distinct events, with the latter two functioning
as the characters' responses to the first. What Blake accomplishes within
this framework is much more remarkable than that, however. He allows
an event occurring within the narrative (the eating of the fruit of the Tree of
Mystery) to transform the meaning ofperspective transformation itself by open-
ing the possibility that these successive events, occurring under the power
of Los and Enitharmon eating the fruit, not only perspectivally analyze the
prior event by re-enacting it but simultaneously constitute a branching of
alternative narrative routes through which that event is realized. By alter-
ing prior events in a way that allows the possibility of retroactive transfor-
mation to enter into the periphery of the characters' consciousnesses, the
eating of the fruit creates a narratological division in the characters (akin to
the ethical division between good and evil, sin and redemption) that
redounds into the narrative field itself. These entrances of the dead into the
narrative proper are thus the "same" event happening in/occurring
through three branching contexts or perspectives, but, unlike the perspec-
tive analyses that have become standard in the poem, each alteration in
perspective simultaneously transforms this "same" event into something
altogether different-a response to and even a conscious undoing of that
prior event through its re-enactment.
 Blake subliminally reinforces this entire sequence as a series of perspec-
tive analyses/narrative re-formations of a single event (the emergence of
the dead into the narrative proper). The Spectre's initial approach to Los
(85:26ff) appears narratively as if it were a response to the first appearance of
the dead; but there is no evidence in their speeches that from this perspec-
tive the dead have yet burst forth. After the second appearance of the dead
the Spectre is again terrified but this time claims responsibility for the
emergence of the "Spectres of the Dead." But Los and Enitharmon, whose
speeches and actions occupy the remainder of Night VIIa, make virtually
no reference to the fact that the dead have yet visibly burst into the narra-
tive proper. Los's statement, "Now I feel the weight of stern repentance"
(87:40), for example, is more understandable as a response to his eating the